How INA was a full-circle moment for GFS alumni and students alike

By Danielle Redford

I’ve had a few moments in my filmmaking career that catch me off-guard in a profound way, and returning to Griffith Film School to shoot our online series INA (with principal production funding from Screen Australia, in association with Screen Queensland) is certainly one of the most surreal and wonderful in the thirteen years since I first stepped onto campus as a first-year film school student.

As alumni, both Rachel Maxine Anderson (creator and director) and myself had spent so much time at the film school years earlier, full of ambition and hunger, but with little sense of what building a career in this industry would continue to demand from us.

To come back to the Griffith Film School and bring a project to life in the very spaces that shaped us so fundamentally was a gift that neither of us took lightly.

INA is set behind the scenes of a daytime cooking show, which meant we needed a multicam studio to bring it to life. This vision was made a reality in the GFS multicam studio, which is one of the first buildings I ever had a lesson in back in my own first-year student days.

Standing back in that same space now and seeing our set hum with activity, with a full crew of industry professionals working alongside talented and curious student placees (via an authorised vocational placement arrangement) was a very personal homecoming of sorts.

What made this experience feel so full-circle was the way we were able to work with the GFS team to integrate film students directly into the INA production as placees through its work-integrated learning environment, Dock Street Studios.

With placees across producing, camera, directing, and production design, each day on the INA set was a dynamic environment where learning, teaching and production were all happening in each moment.

Rather than learning in simulated industry environments, these placees were learning on a very real set with real stakes. A challenge, yes - and one these students rose to completely.

They were switched on, generous, thoughtful, and deeply committed. There’s something powerful about being on set at that stage in your journey, when everything still feels possible, and every moment carries that buzzing ‘what can we achieve?’ energy.

Watching third-year students step into that environment brought me right back to my own final year, which was pivotal in shaping my understanding of what I wanted from a career in the Australian film and screen industry, and what I would continue to learn I wanted to contribute to it.

I had a vivid moment of such pride in my producing placee, Phoebe, when I got to see some of the experiences my fellow producer, Rae, and I, had been sharing with her across production. Phoebe and I were reviewing cost reports just outside the studio when a group of high school students came through on a Griffith tour. Inside, we were mid-shoot - any disruption could have compromised the take, but there was also no chance we wanted to get in the way of what the Griffith campus needed that day.

Without a moment of hesitation, Phoebe stepped in. It turned out that Phoebe had experience as a Griffith tour host herself, and she calmly, confidently guided the group - explaining what we were doing, showcasing the facilities we were in so they didn’t miss out on a tour segment, and doing so all without any compromise to the quiet the set needed to keep on rolling in the background. She was instinctive, professional, and impressive! I couldn’t stop grinning at that moment as her real-world experience and training met an opportunity for her to put them into action - and she did so without missing a beat.

I also remember glancing across at Liv, our directing placee, sitting beside Rach at the monitor. There was my favourite kind of on-set joy in her expression as she observed Rach directing a scene that Liv had been deep in the prep process alongside her for. She’d been a part of the pre-production journey through this workplace-integrated learning, and now she was seeing the fruit of that in action on set. It’s a moment you never forget when those filmmaking hopes become a tangible reality.

This experience of returning to Griffith as an alumni and working so generously with their team spoke directly to the experience I had as a student myself: when you’re shaping students for an industry that is ever-changing, high-pressure, and full of opportunities you can only dream of, you need to give them every chance you can to be exposed to the highest quality of learning experiences possible.

By working with Griffith students as part of an authorised vocational placement arrangement, we were able to build relationships between this student cohort and working professionals out in the industry they were about to enter. These are relationships that often become fundamental to the first hire, the first opportunity, and the many years of a career that follows.

To bring INA to life in this full-circle experience with Griffith was such a gift, and not only are we beyond proud of the series we’ve created, we’re just as proud of our placees who carry that learning with them into their own careers. We can’t wait to see what’s next for them.

PRODUCTION INFORMATION

Created, written and directed by Rachel Maxine Anderson, INA is six-part comedy-drama follows a television producer forced to cast her estranged mother as a last-minute replacement on her failing cooking show, turning a chaotic shoot day into a reckoning with family, identity and cultural disconnect.

Filmed in Brisbane, INA stars Lena Cruz alongside newcomer Triona Calimbayan-Giles, and is produced by Rae Choi (Limina Pictures) and Danielle Redford (Contra Stories). Kerrin McNeil and Filipino actress Ruby Ruiz also serve as executive producers.

Following its CANNESERIES premiere, INA launches globally on YouTube from June 12, coinciding with Philippines Independence Day. Click here to watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ina.series

Ina is a Sweet Mess Production for YouTube. Principal production funding from Screen Australia, in association with Screen Queensland. Marketing assistance provided by Screen Australia.

For more information and updates, follow the INA team on Instagram @ina.series